


Enfant's Monseigneur

by MaleficentMo



Category: These Old Shades - Georgette Heyer
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, But everbody is okay, Childbirth, Curtain Fic, Difficult childbirth, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Justin is a sap now, So Married, So sappy it is now a tree, These two though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 12:45:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11990073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaleficentMo/pseuds/MaleficentMo
Summary: Justin is completely devoted to his wife.





	Enfant's Monseigneur

Leonié had the most expressive eyes he had ever seen. They were one of the first things he noticed about her when she hurled her tiny body into him that fateful night. They flashed in anger, steeled in stubbornness, melted in bliss, swirled with mischevious secrets. They suited her so well, both her face and her personality, and he found that he never got tired of watching them.

Outsiders may praise him (which really took some getting used to) for his unending patience in listening to his _enfant's_ stories, but she was a marvellous storyteller, and he was rewarded with the joy of watching her eyes light up the way they only do for him. But one of his favourite things was the sparkle in her eyes when he gave her a gift.

He remembered the first gifts he had given her, and how she had cried while throwing them in his face. She had been insulted, and he had been amused. He spent many years training her to accept the gifts and baubles he showered on her like rain. And he was rewarded magnificently.

Leonié soon began to understand that the gifts were one of the many ways he liked to express his love, more especially because she had grown up with so little. He liked the look of her swathed in luxury and treating money like so much refuse, meant to be tossed around. As his wife, it was expected. As his love, he would accept nothing else.

He even got her to start asking him for things- although it took years and many arguments- and then he would accompany her shopping- he never cared what the _Ton_ said in the first place. The jeweller's, the dressmaker's, the cobbler, milliner, perfumer, glove maker's, anywhere she wanted. He liked to watch her carefully and painstakingly select the very best- he had trained her in that as well- and he loved even more watching her treat the employees the same way she treated their servants- not unkindly, but with absolute confidence and completely comfortable in the knowledge of her autocracy.

He knew one day he may have to tell her no, for whatever reason refuse a request, but he would postpone that for as long as he could. His money would last for generations, even at the rate they were spending it, so it wouldn't be that, thankfully.

He only hoped that by now she knew she absolutely owned him.

She decided one day she wanted a baby, and he held out for months. No one would ever accuse Justin of being a pushover. Of course, no one would ever accuse _Satanas_ of anything, unless they were in search of ruination and pain. He may have relaxed in his married life, but he was absolutely still the man she married, of which Leonié was completely grateful. Her _Satanas_ was the love of her life.

But after several months of fighting and arguing, then making up with gentle words and loving caresses- not exactly out of the norm for them anyhow- he allowed it. And instantly regretted it.

The pregnancy was hard. Halfway through she was forced on bedrest, and dealing with a unwillingly bedridden Leonié was no one's idea of an enjoyable way to spend their time, but Alastair served his _enfant_ completely through the four months of bedrest.

The birth almost killed her. It was painful, and many things went wrong, and Leonié didn't wake up after for many days. It was months before she could leave her bed, and only then with her husband by her side- he would absolutely allow nothing else.

And no one argued, for as difficult as it all had been for Leonié, it has been arguably worse for her adoring husband, made to watch as he could do nothing while his precious _enfant_ struggled for her life. Several times during the birth they had tried to eject him from the room, but most did not even get so far as to speak to him before cowed by the dangerous look in his eyes.

After a day and a half of birthing, the recovery process began, but he still would allow no one but the physician to touch his wife.

Not even Fanny, bless her soul, who came every day, was allowed to touch her- to do more than read to her.

Of course, his _enfant_ did not make it easy for him. Always demanding, as he had taught her, that she be allowed to get up, demanding something to eat other than "this _pourri_ pig-slop" (he did not correct her atrocious language, which was yet another sign of his achingly heavy worry.)

But with time, she was well. Leonié was never one to give up, and she was determined not to be stuck "lying about like a sow in a slaughterhous." He did correct that one, mentions of sows in slaughterhouses apparently too much even for him. She giggled when he did, and he immediately felt a bit better.

Soon, she was taking short walks around the grounds on her own, though never out of shouting-distance of a page boy. She laughed at this, and said, "But _Monseigneur_ , I never had to do such a thing when I was a page," and the mischevious sparkle was back in her eyes, which is all that saved her from a severe rebuke.

(Leonié was often heard lamenting her handsome husband's deplorable ability to excel in all he does, since it appeared to apply also to repremanding- a practise he only began, he assured her, once they were married.)

But in time, his precious _enfant_ was completely healed, and back to her usual antics. And she sometimes even thought she might like another baby, someone for Dominic to play with. But she never once brought up the subject to her husband, because while she was willing to suffer for a baby, she knew it would very likely kill him.

And, though she thought she might like another child, Leonié really wanted unquestionably nothing more than the happiness and peace of her beloved husband. She absolutely thrived on the light in his eyes when he looked at her with love and peaceful joy. She would never trade it for anything.


End file.
